Inside the Belt Railway of Chicago

Producer: MVP

Locations: Clearing Yard

Timeframe:1990s

Length: 56 minutes

Source: Robert Calvert

Here is a look at Operations on The Chicago Belt Railway. Comprehensive overview. Facilities with detailed visits. Belt Management and Employee interviews. Plenty of railroad action.

A single DVD-R. Maps are included. Narrated show. Preview section.

Clearing Yard is the highlight of this program. A massive place in Bedford Park, Illinois. Visit these: Tower, Hump, Diesel Service inside the Engine House.

Belt Railway is one of Chicagoland’s transfer railroads. Assorted mainline roads, drop-off, and pickup from them. See the yard jobs at work.

As with similar Midwest Video Productions from this era. The ones I have seen. Video quality is a concern.

A quick look at the Dispatch Office. There are 280 plus trains dispatched every 24 hours. Computers have replaced the earlier board in the background.

To the Trains… 👉

West Receiving Yard

Arrivals enter here. SP unit ore MNGVC. Minnesota to Geneva Steel. C44-9W trio.

Freight car classification The Hump

East and West classification yards. Single Hump with bidirectional operation. Filmed from a catwalk in the Hump area.

GP38-2 pair 491 and 490 are Hump engines with low-speed mods for this duty. Pacesetter controls and extra weight has been added for high performance in this service.

Note the Steam Era structures to the left. More is seen in the show. Diesel Shops, an old turntable, water tank.

Clearing Yard processes 4500 cars daily. They build trains for nine major railroads.

CSX Intermodal facility handles trailer and container traffic. Over 1/2 million yearly. There are a couple of quick shots there.

West Depature yard

BRC 522 note the hand thrown turnouts. The BNSF is in the outbound area. Both Depature Yards are over 20 tracks each.

Soo/ Milwaukee Road bandits, 2064 and 2041 lead a Canadian Pacific Manifest outbound.

Engine Shops

Three SP mk rebuilds move in the Diesel Service area. Shops have interior scenes, like the cover.

The Alco C424 #604 sits outside of the Shop.

Many Cow and Calf combos are operating at Clearing. The 503 is a TR4A/ B set. These were rare in the 1990s.

Inside the Belt Railway of Chicago

An informative show on Belt Railway operations. Since, the basic principles are similar amoung many large yard facilities.

Viewers can gain knowledge of a working rail yard. Apply to general know-how. Great for Model Railroaders as well.

The show is a good one. As stated, it is the video quality that is a letdown. Historical value.

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars